Residents to Clear Overgrown Brush to Reveal Headstones of Prominent African Americans at Woodlawn Cemetery, Tomorrow
WASHINGTON, DC – Tomorrow, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) and Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander will host the first "Clean-up our History Day at Woodlawn Cemetery." It will begin with a brief press conference, which will be followed by the guided community cleanup of the historic cemetery.
WHO: Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC)
Yvette Alexander, Ward 7 Councilmember
Lonnie G. Bunch, Director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture
Major General Errol R. Schwartz, Commanding General of the D.C. National Guard
Steve Shulman, Executive Director of Cultural Tourism DC
Dr. Vincent Hill, University of the District of Columbia Mortuary Science Program Director
WHAT: Press Conference and volunteer cleanup event
WHEN: Saturday, October 19, 2013 at 10:00 a.m.
WHERE: Woodlawn Cemetery, 4661 Benning Road SE, Washington, D.C.
BACKGROUND: The cemetery is the final resting place for more than 36,000 African Americans, including such notable individuals as Blanche K. Bruce, the first African American U.S. Senator; Mercer Langston, the first African American Member of Congress from the state of Virginia, the first dean of Howard University Law School, and the first African American President of Virginia State University; John Willis Menard, the first African American elected to Congress; Elnora Dickerson Davis, the wife of Benjamin Oliver Davis, Sr., the first African American general officer in the United States Army and mother of Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., the first African American general in the United States Air Force; and many other distinguished Americans.
The Woodlawn Cemetery was placed on the D.C. Inventory of Historic Sites in 1991 and on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. It is located in Ward 7 on 22.5 acres. The daily operations of the cemetery are entrusted to the Woodlawn Cemetery Perpetual Care Association, which is comprised mostly of volunteers who have loved ones buried there.
Published: October 18, 2013